Who We Are

A Force for Good

Lawyers for Civil Rights works with communities of color and immigrants to fight discrimination and foster equity through creative and courageous legal advocacy, education, and economic empowerment. In partnership with law firms and community allies, we provide free, life-changing legal support to individuals, families, and small businesses. We focus on impact areas that represent the front lines in today’s battle for equality and justice. LCR is headquartered in Boston. We represent clients across Massachusetts and surrounding communities—and the impact of our life-changing work ripples across the country.

In addition to our expert staff, we mobilize hundreds of outstanding attorneys from leading law firms to tackle groundbreaking cases on a pro bono basis. This model creates a force multiplier effect: contributions to LCR result in exponentially greater impact thanks to the thousands of hours donated by our network of valued partners and supporters.

In 2024, MacKenzie Scott announced a $2 million gift to LCR. In a pool of 6,353 applicants across the country, as judged by peer and external evaluators, LCR was among the highest-ranking organizations nationally. Click here to learn more about this transformative gift.


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History

On June 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy met with 250 leading American lawyers in the East Room of the White House to discuss the role lawyers could and should play in the deepening civil rights crisis. The nation recently had been shaken by television and news accounts of police-led violence against peaceful demonstrations led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and by the spectacle of U.S. Army intervention to enforce court orders requiring the University of Alabama to admit Black students against a defiant Governor Wallace. President Kennedy noted the special role that lawyers have played in the creation and maintenance of our constitutional system of government and the rule of law. The President and Attorney General made a special appeal to the lawyers to mobilize the voice and work of the legal profession to support the struggle for civil rights in the nation. From this meeting, the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law was formed.


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